On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 2:40 PM, Logan Streondj <[email protected]> wrote: >> You can still buy non-GMO and organic food. There is a market for it >> because some people don't trust the technology. But the fact that it >> costs more tells me that the technology works. >> > Perhaps you aren't aware of the massive subsidies that go into making it > cheaper. > There aren't any subsidies for organic produce.
I agree that farm subsidies such as price supports and ethanol tax credits are bad policies. But how is this the fault of GMO foods? Should we make ethanol from low yield organic maize rather than BT corn? > Even here in Toronto, Canada, a lady that was growing over 200 native plants, > was fined and had her plants forcibly mowed/destroyed. In the U.S., the number 1 crop by land area produces no food: grass. But why would people want to grow food in their yards? Technology has made food cheap. Agriculture is 6% of the world economy and 1.5% in the U.S. In 1800, it was most of the world economy. Most people were sustenance farmers, and we could only produce enough food to support 1 billion people. Should we return to the old ways and let the other 6 billion starve? > monocroping and "war on nature" (tractors chemicals) style agriculture is > extremely low-density and high-cost, using up more calories of energy than > it produces., So? It takes 0.7 TW of food energy to support the world population, or 100 watts per person. That is 5% of our total energy consumption of 15 TW. Potentially there is 160,000 TW of solar power reaching the Earth. Given how little of this power is converted to food energy on farms, it seems there is a lot of room for improvement through technology. Providing an incentive for this technology requires that food energy be more valuable than equivalent oil or electricity, which is the case. -- -- Matt Mahoney, [email protected] ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-f452e424 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-58d57657 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
